A unit investment trust (UIT) is a professionally selected, diversified portfolio of stocks, bonds, or other securities that remains as a fixed portfolio throughout the life of the trust. Investors in a UIT purchase units, which represent an undivided ownership in the entire portfolio. Unlike mutual funds, in which the portfolio is actively managed and traded and continuously changes, UITs generally remain fixed for a predetermined period of time. Portfolios are designed to fill a variety of investment needs and risk tolerance levels. They fall into primarily two categories, equity and fixed income.
Equity portfolios are typically classified as either strategies or sectors. Strategy portfolios follow predetermined investment criteria for selecting the stocks for the portfolio. All strategies have three inherent qualities:                1. Simplicity: The strategies seek to out-perform specified indices by selecting portfolios using sound, fundamental and technical, screens that reflect the historical behavior of the securities.        2. Resilience: The strategies must show back-tested results and have staying power even through bear markets.        3. Discipline: The strategies dictate which stocks are chosen for the portfolio; no emotional judgments are made and the strategies always remain the same.        
Developing a strategy that robustly meets these criteria can be very difficult, if not elusive. Investment strategies have been illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 5,978,778 issued to O'Shaughnessy on Nov. 2, 1999 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,132,899 issued to Fox on Jul. 21, 1992.
Further limitations and disadvantages of conventional and traditional approaches will become apparent to one of skill in the art, through comparison of such strategies with the present invention as set forth in the remainder of the present application with reference to the drawings.